... Impounds Goods Worth N13.9 billion
Harboursandport.com: Lagos - The Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone A of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), yesterday said 176 suspects were arrested for involvement in smuggling.
The Unit also said that four officers died in the course of duty, even as contraband goods with Duty Paid Value, DPV worth N13.9 billion were impounded last year.
Customs Area Controller (CAC) of the Unit, Hussein Ejibunu, said the Unit also recovered a total of N878.3 million that would have been lost through duty underpayment on goods cleared from the nation's seaports and border stations.
The Customs boss said “We prosecuted our core mandates without fear or favour in the six states of the South-West namely: Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, and Ondo states. Even in the face of resistance, attacks, and tricks in the mode of concealment, we were duty-bound to carry out our responsibilities.
“We arrested 176 smuggling suspects last year, and secured seven convictions, 14 were charged to court and are at various stages of investigation and prosecution, seven suspects are in detention; two suspects were handed over to NDLEA, and one suspect was handed over to the Nigerian Police respectively, while 151 are on administrative bail.
“On a sad note, four of our officers namely: Late inspectors of Customs TP Astor, and A Onwueguzie, and Assistant Inspectors of Customs, Musa, R and Bristol, E lost their lives in active service while confronting smugglers last year. While we frowned at such murderous acts, we also ensured that those behind some of the killings were arrested to face justice.
“From January 1 to December 31, 2022, we made a total seizure of smuggled items worth a duty paid value of N13,908,575,436.5. Aside from protecting the national economy, some of the seizures achieved protection of citizens' health because dangerous, expired, and harmful products were prevented from being smuggled into the country.
“The items seized were foreign parboiled rice, vehicles, drugs, textiles, petroleum products, and other items in the import and export prohibition lists. In terms of volume, rice topped the list of our seizures. We seized 93,102 X 50kg which amounts to about 156 trailer loads of rice. Even our newly constructed warehouse had an overflow of seized rice.
“A total number of 108 automobiles comprising of trucks, tankers, cars, and motorcycles were seized either as smuggled items or means of conveyance of smuggled items.
“Illicit drugs seized during the course of the year under review are, 7,354 kg and 4,975 tablets of Cannabis sativa, 233 cartons X 225 milligrams, and 82 packs X 225 milligrams of Tramadol.
"It is pertinent to remind us that these hard drugs fuel crime and insecurity. For petroleum products, this Unit seized 656,414 liters of premium motor spirit (PMS); that is, about 20 tanker loads of fuel from economic saboteurs who seek to impoverish the majority of our country people by taking out petrol subsidized for citizens' benefit to be sold in other countries," he noted.
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